Choose your preferred view mode

Please select whether you prefer to view the MDPI pages with a view tailored for mobile displays or to view the MDPI
pages in the normal scrollable desktop version. This selection will be stored into your cookies and used automatically
in next visits. You can also change the view style at any point from the main header when using the pages with your
mobile device.

Abstract

Manufactured nanoparticles (NPs) are increasingly being used for commercial purposes and certain NP types have been shown to have broad spectrum antibacterial activity. In contrast, their activities against fungi and fungi-like oomycetes are less studied. Here, we examined the potential of two types of commercially available Zn NPs (Zn NPs and ZnO NPs) to inhibit spore germination and infectivity on tobacco leaves resulting from exposure to the fungi-like oomycete pathogen Peronospora tabacina (P. tabacina). Both types of NPs, as well as ZnCl2 and bulk ZnO control treatments, inhibited spore germination compared to a blank control. ZnO ENMs were shown to be a much more powerful suppressor of spore germination and infectivity than bulk ZnO. ZnO and Zn NPs significantly inhibited leaf infection at 8 and 10 mg·L−1, respectively. Both types of NPs were found to provide substantially higher concentration dependent inhibition of spore germination and infectivity than could be readily explained by the presence of dissolved Zn. These results suggest that both NP types have potential for use as economic, low-dose, potentially non-persistent anti-microbial agents against the oomycete P. tabacina.
View Full-Text

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).